The original A Wonderful Life's mundanity and slower gameplay diverted it from the series other entries, but what it did succesfully was add for a relaxing experience bundled with a cozy little island wrapped around a neat dynamic weather system and beautiful lightning effects.
It certainly had its share of flaws in several aspects, some of the story chapters were too long ,
Festivals were scarce and not nearly as interesting as the rest of the series, and the characters, while cute and eerie, didn't do anything new past the first 2 chapters. The farm tools didn't offer much expanded flexibility other than the water can having more capacity and other tools spending less stamina.
Even still, I absolutely adore the original, and it has always been a game I get drawn back to when I need to dial out after a stressful event of any sort. It is very relaxing and therapeutic with its slow monotone nature and longwinded crop cultivation and dairy farming.
In comparison the remake is a faithful adaption with some of the same qualities, while also diversifying itself with its share of new nuances.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is slicker and shortens down the chapter spans to only one year, while drip feeding various content throughout the span of the game.
You get new facility expansions and faster tools to compensate the huger scope of what you need to do daily, and the game just gets a lot busier if you max out the capacity of the farm. Festivals are altered and boasts some different dialogues throughout the years, they are still just cutscenes, but the slight differences per year is a nice touch.
There are monthly requests from villagers to cultivate specific crops, or make dishes in return for rewards, some more interesting than others, but regardless it's a nice extra insentive to have more to do in the game which still may last for 100+ hours. There are plenty of costumes, gender change (non-binaries included) at your choosing whichever point in the game as well as a solid choice of both male and female bachelors to date.
The best thing about the remake is the new achievement system and a encyclopedia you can fill out as an extra challenge.
Even despite the fact that the remake makes the game more feasible to complete, the game still loses some significant steam in the later chapters due to nothing new really happening with the community aside from your kid and some npcs growing up slightly moreso cosmetically.
The remake has a plain, but pleasant look, with brushed up models more in line with story of season's current art style, while a couple of the characters are altered from their gamecube/ps2 counterparts, due to making some bachelors look more appealing and younger.
However, the gamecube versions completely conquers over the remake with its lightning effects and draw distance.
Running around the valley and watching the scenery change, while light and shadows gradually marked the landscape added so much to an otherwise very restricted environment.
Instead pop-ins and poorly rendered shadow effects recides over the remake and leaves the visual spectacle for dust.
Story of Season: A Wonderful life is very niche even for its own genre, but if I were to recommend one to the general player it would be the remake due to the improved pacing, extra content and more busy nature, even though personally I'd rather go wind down to the lush aestetics and slower mundane comfort grind of the original version.
It certainly had its share of flaws in several aspects, some of the story chapters were too long ,
Festivals were scarce and not nearly as interesting as the rest of the series, and the characters, while cute and eerie, didn't do anything new past the first 2 chapters. The farm tools didn't offer much expanded flexibility other than the water can having more capacity and other tools spending less stamina.
Even still, I absolutely adore the original, and it has always been a game I get drawn back to when I need to dial out after a stressful event of any sort. It is very relaxing and therapeutic with its slow monotone nature and longwinded crop cultivation and dairy farming.
In comparison the remake is a faithful adaption with some of the same qualities, while also diversifying itself with its share of new nuances.
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is slicker and shortens down the chapter spans to only one year, while drip feeding various content throughout the span of the game.
You get new facility expansions and faster tools to compensate the huger scope of what you need to do daily, and the game just gets a lot busier if you max out the capacity of the farm. Festivals are altered and boasts some different dialogues throughout the years, they are still just cutscenes, but the slight differences per year is a nice touch.
There are monthly requests from villagers to cultivate specific crops, or make dishes in return for rewards, some more interesting than others, but regardless it's a nice extra insentive to have more to do in the game which still may last for 100+ hours. There are plenty of costumes, gender change (non-binaries included) at your choosing whichever point in the game as well as a solid choice of both male and female bachelors to date.
The best thing about the remake is the new achievement system and a encyclopedia you can fill out as an extra challenge.
Even despite the fact that the remake makes the game more feasible to complete, the game still loses some significant steam in the later chapters due to nothing new really happening with the community aside from your kid and some npcs growing up slightly moreso cosmetically.
The remake has a plain, but pleasant look, with brushed up models more in line with story of season's current art style, while a couple of the characters are altered from their gamecube/ps2 counterparts, due to making some bachelors look more appealing and younger.
However, the gamecube versions completely conquers over the remake with its lightning effects and draw distance.
Running around the valley and watching the scenery change, while light and shadows gradually marked the landscape added so much to an otherwise very restricted environment.
Instead pop-ins and poorly rendered shadow effects recides over the remake and leaves the visual spectacle for dust.
Story of Season: A Wonderful life is very niche even for its own genre, but if I were to recommend one to the general player it would be the remake due to the improved pacing, extra content and more busy nature, even though personally I'd rather go wind down to the lush aestetics and slower mundane comfort grind of the original version.